Elementals
by thepensword
Summary: Various assorted and sundry ficlets and drabbles, semi-connected and semi-not connected, detailing the adventures of the Gems as they take on the world of the Avatar. Included with purchase: Log Dates, intimidated Fire Nation Admirals, confused natives, and blue-skinned overpowered Waterbender goddesses. Not included: a linear plot.
1. Ocean Gem

**This story is infinite in that I have no idea how much I will write. This could be all of it, or there could be more. Probably there will be more. Who knows.**

* * *

"Is there _any_ limit to your waterbending?" exclaimed a drenched and irritable Sokka.

Lapis ignored him.

"I'm still not completely sure what waterbending is," said Steven apologetically, handing Sokka one of the blankets to dry himself with. "But Lapis stole the ocean once, so let's go with no?"

Sokka gaped at him.

"I'm sorry, she did _what_?!"

"She stole the ocean."

The water tribe boy just stared like a fish out of water, so Steven elaborated. "She was stuck in a mirror, but I got her out, but then she was pretty upset so she stole the ocean."

Sokka turned his flabbergasted expression towards the gem in question. Lapis just blinked at him and dropped another wave on his head.


	2. Log Date

Log Date. 7 21 2.

We are still trapped on this primitive rock. Today we came across a small, basic residence cluster that contains a group of creatures that appear to be at least similar to humans. Actual species is not yet confirmed.

Steven decided to enter the residence to gather sustenance. As Lapis and I do not require sustenance, we stayed behind. Also, Steven said that because humans do not come in blue and green, we would "stick out". I don't see the problem, but Lapis agreed so I suppose taking stealth precautions can't hurt.

Attempts to contact the Crystal Gems have not been successful. I suggested we try to access a Homeworld frequency, but I was shot down. Apparently we're "not that desperate".

 _Peridot? What are you doing?_

 _I'm recording a log, obviously. Shush._

Anyway,

 _Hey guys!_

 _Steven!_

 _Oh, hello, Steven. Did you find sustenance?_

 _Well, they didn't have anything I recognized, but the do have this weird pig-chicken thing so I got some of that. Oh, and some kind of fruit._

 _Did you find out where we are?_

 _Some place called the "Earth Kingdom"._

 _I've never heard of that._

 _That's no planet_ I've _ever heard of._

 _I dunno. Oh, Peridot, are you recording?_

 _Yes, Steven. I'm_ trying _to._

 _Oh. Well, we should probably leave soon._

 _Oh, alright._

Peridot out.


	3. Strong Than You

"Where's Steven?" yelled the woman. Her hands glimmered, huge fisted gauntlets appearing on either one.

Zhao sent a blast of fire at her. Then another, and another, and another, until all he could see in front of him was smoke and flame glistening heat.

When it cleared, Zhao staggered backwards in surprise. The woman stood there, untouched, as if nothing had happened. She was completely unmoved, and not a bit of her was even so much as scorched.

The corners of the woman's mouth dropped.

"I won't ask again," she said through clenched teeth.

"Get off of my ship!" shouted Zhao as he unleashed another barrage.

This time, the woman moved. But not to escape the flames; she moved towards him, surrounded by a halo of fire, until she had her gauntlet clenched in a fist around the front of his shirt.

"I am Admiral Zhao of the Fire Nation! I will not be beaten by—by some _freak_!" spat Zhao.

The woman drew him closer. "Something to remember, Admiral," she said. Her glasses slid down her nose, just a bit, just so he could see her eyes.

All three of them.

Her third eye winked and he reeled backwards, but she hadn't finished.

"I am much, much stronger than you."


	4. Metalbenders

"Ooh, you can control metal?" said Steven excitedly.

Toph grinned, nodded, and crushed what used to be a metal fencepost with her fist.

"So can Peridot!"

Toph's smile dropped a bit.

"Peridot!" yelled Steven.

"What?"

"Come show Toph your metal powers!"

The small green gem pattered over, cackling slightly in her high, nasally voice.

"You can metalbend?" asked Toph skeptically.

Peridot smiled evilly.

"Prepare to be amazed, human!" she cried. Green arms pushed outwards, fingers flexing. Peridot began to grunt with exertion, muscles trembling and eyes squinting shut in concentration.

The metal rod in Toph's hand twitched.

Then, very, very slowly, it began to float up into the air.

Very slowly.

Toph frowned at the faint tug of metal in her hand.

Peridot continued to cackle in between breaths.

Steven grinned at them both.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Peridot lowered her arms. The metal rod dropped the two inches back into Toph's hand.

"So? Pretty amazing, right?" urged Peridot proudly.

"Wow," said Toph.

"I know, right?" squealed Peridot.

"Wow," said Toph again.


	5. The Answer

"I can't do it," said Aang. He was sitting on the beach, talking to the waves and the stars.

"Can't do what?" said a voice behind him. Aang jumped to his feet in a swirl or air, but relaxed when he saw that the speaker was Steven.

"The Fire Lord," Aang said as he collapsed back down to the sand, legs crossed before him and chin falling to rest on his palms. "Everyone says I have to kill him, but I can't. It goes against everything I know."

"You won't have to," said Steven reassuringly as he went to sit beside him. "If you don't want to do it, there's always a way."

"Yeah, but what do I do?" Aang asked, sounding close to tears. "He's a terrible person. It's not like he's just going to stop being terrible."

"I dunno," Steven replied, voice remarkably calm as he stared out at the setting sun. "But there's always a way. You know, Peridot used to be a bad guy."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But now she's on our side."

Aang laughed without an ounce of humor. "The Fire Lord isn't going to turn good." The bitterness in his voice sounded out of place. Unnatural. _Wrong._

"Maybe not," mused Steven. "But even if that's not an option, there's always something else."

"But _what_?"

Steven sighed and threw a pebble into the surf. "I don't know. But I do know you'll find it."

Aang looked at him through a haze of what he realized were tears. "You really think so?"

"Yeah," said Steven. "I really do."

Two boys burdened by legacy sat on the beach in silence.


	6. Do It For Her (Him) (You)

**I had the sudden realization that I had no plans for a Zuko chapter. Zuko is my FAVORITE. So I thought, "Who can give him a good talk?" and Pearl just popped into my brain and started yapping. Tada.**

* * *

"I was supposed to be perfect," said Pearl one day as she folded herself to rest on her knees beside him.

They hadn't really gotten along so far. She was so fussy and proper that it was annoying, and his scar seemed to bother her. Steven had noticed this and reassured him that it wasn't so much the scar itself as the asymmetry of his face, but the way she never looked directly at him still hurt.

So this…was strange.

"I was supposed to be perfect," said this strange woman and really looked at him for the first time with eyes as blue as the sky.

Zuko blinked and watched her warily through the darkness of his hair.

"That's what pearls are," she continued, moving her gaze to her slender white fingers and lifting her hands up towards the moonlight. "Perfect. Just perfect servants. Pretty toys. Trinkets for those important enough to own them."

He said nothing, but couldn't look away.

"Then Rose came along. And she was…she was different. She was _special._ She came and told me I could be whoever I wanted to be, do whatever I wanted to do, that I didn't have to be perfect anymore. But I wanted to be perfect. I didn't know how _not_ to be. Even when I was free I wanted to be perfect, for her."

She inhaled deeply, reaching her hand toward the dirt and shaping it delicately into a flower before letting it drop away once again.

"And it was like that for years. All through the war, and afterwards. She was beautiful, and wonderful, and she made me feel so important. I loved her, but I don't think she ever really loved me back. At least not in the same way.

"She'd always loved humans. It was one after the other for centuries, but they'd die and she'd mourn and then she'd move on. And I should have stepped in, told her how I felt, but I always figured they were phases and she'd always come back to me in the end. So I strove to be even more perfect, in the hopes that one day she'd see me and choose me and _love_ me."

Pearl sighed and bowed her head. "I was wrong. One day she met a singer named Greg, and this time she fell _hard_. I think he was the first human she ever really understood, because he loved her enough to _make_ her understand. At first, I didn't think it was as real as it was. I had no idea how much he mattered to her until it was too late.

"Gems can't have children. We are born from rock, fully-grown and already knowing our purpose. But Rose wanted a child. She thought humans were marvelous, and she wanted to be able to feel things like they do, love like they do. So she gave up her physical form to bring Steven into the world. And at first…at first I _hated_ him. I didn't understand who or what he was or what had happened. But as he grew and as I grew to know him, I learned to understand and I learned to love him as himself, separate from Rose.

"Since he came into our lives, things have changed. And I've moved on. I understand now what Rose tried to tell me from the beginning: that I am my own person, that I am free to choose and I don't need someone else's love to validate my existence. That I am whole without her."

Zuko stared at Pearl. Their stories were so different, but in her words was a lesson.

"It's different," he protested anyway, stubbornness and years of a specific mindset clashing with new ideals and common sense.

Pearl stared back, gaze unfaltering, looking directly into his scarred eye and straight through to his soul.

"Is it really?"


	7. Rumors

**This was a suggestion by the commenter Gen, and I loved it so I wrote it.**

* * *

Nothing spreads faster or further than a story among soldiers.

War is a long, complicated game, and for every moment of fire and blood and glory and death, there are many more moments of quiet, tedious _waiting_.

Waiting for orders. Waiting to attack. Waiting for the sun to rise, for the weather to turn, for the right moment to strike.

And an idle soldier is a bored soldier.

A group of such soldiers sat around an unlit campfire in the sweltering heat of the late afternoon. They were clad in mostly red, their heavy metal armor lying on the dirt around them. Several were shirtless.

"Hey, did you hear about those spirits?" said Li as he lazily whittled a stick into a point.

"What spirits?" asked Jin, looking up from where she was adding the fifteenth braid to her fine black hair.

"They say that there are some spirits around giving our troops some trouble. And they say there's a few of 'em traveling with the Avatar."

Ghozi stopped playing with the flame in his hand and leaned forward in interest. "You mean like the Blue Spirit?"

"No, my friend Pozu was there. He says the Blue Spirit isn't actually a spirit, just some nut in a mask."

Li shook his head. "Not the Blue Spirit. And these are _real_ spirits."

"How do they know for sure?" asked the young Akuri curiously.

"One of 'em can't be burned. One of them has a spear made of light. I heard one of 'em can even turn into animals. And they say all of them are unnaturally colored."

"Unnaturally colored? What does that mean?" asked Ghozi.

"I mean that one of them has bright green skin. And they say there's a blue one, and a purple one, and reddish-pinkish sort of person."

"I don't buy it," scoffed Jin. "They're just rumors."

Li shrugged, flicking at a leaf by his feet. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you if you see one."

"You are so full of—"

"What was that?!" exclaimed Akuri. They all turned to look where she was pointing.

"I don't see anything," said Ghozi doubtfully.

"I…I thought I saw—"

" _Look!_ " shouted Jin as something pink flew past their vision. Everyone stared as the shape materialized at the edge of the woods.

"Is that…is that a pink lion?"

It was. And on its back was a small, dark figure holding and equally pink sword. As the soldiers watched, the lion opened its mouth and let out a roar, rippling waves of energy traveling forwards in rings and seeming to rip a hole in the very air itself. The lion leaped through the hole and it snapped shut behind it, leaving no trace that anything was there in the first place.

" _See_ ," said Li. "I _told_ you."


	8. Fusion

_"_ _Steven!"_

Aang startled awake. There was the sound of footsteps running through the Fire Lord's abandoned house. And shouting. Lots of shouting, in a girl's voice that he didn't recognize.

 _"_ _Steeeeveeeeen!"_

The young Avatar threw his blankets off and grabbed his staff, not so much running as bouncing down the hallway outside his bedroom, his feet barely skimming the ground. He could hear the rest of his friends waking up around and behind him, and ahead was the rapid footfall that had to belong to Steven.

A roar resonated through the house. Aang startled and began to move faster.

He skidded to a stop when he reached the doorway, barely avoiding slamming into Steven. In the courtyard was a young girl with long, dark hair, and by her side was...a pink lion?

"Connie?" gasped Steven. Aang barely glimpsed the tears that formed at his eyes before the gem boy was off, dashing into the courtyard and practically hurling himself into the girl's arms.

"OhmygoshConnieIcan'tbelieveyou'reherehow—"

"—StevenIwassoworriedyouguysjustdisappearedandI—"

"—Imissedyousomuchohmygoshohmygoshhowareyouhere—"

The two spun in a circle, arms wrapped around each other in a desperate sort of hug, neither wanting to let the other go. As the rest of Team Avatar arrived at the doorway, a pink glow began to shimmer and swell around Steven and the newcomer. Then the glow seemed to bend and change, and as it changed so did the pair in the middle of it until—

In the courtyard stood a tall teenager with Steven's gem at their navel and swaths of dark curls spilling around their shoulders.

"What on _earth_ …" breathed Sokka.

The teen wiped a tear from their eye and fell to their knees, laughing in pure joy.


	9. The Purple Plunderer

"Hey."

Amethyst looked up. "'Sup, Rocky."

"Bored?"

"Totally."

"I hear you can shapeshift."

"Yeah."

Toph flashed a mischievous grin. "Wanna help me scam some idiots out of their money?"

" _Hell_ yes."

* * *

"Amethyst, no."

"What? I thought we were thieving."

"Yeah, but you can't just grab stuff. That takes the fun out of it. You gotta play 'em."

Amethyst nodded slowly. "I'm listening."

* * *

"Holy _agni_ ," said the merchant, and fell to the ground so fast he bruised his knees.

"Such terrible language in the presence of royalty," said Azula, coldly examining her long purple nails. "I should have you banished for that."

"Oh no, your highness, I meant no disrespect! I'm just…just surprised, is all. I'm just a humble merchant, please have mercy."

Azula hummed. "Well, I am in a good mood. I suppose I'll let you off if you give me a cart of your finest wares."

"Y-yes, your majesty, of course," stuttered the merchant, and hurried to fill a cart with fruit and cloth and gold.

* * *

Azula stalked through the market place, followed by a young girl dragging a cartful of goods. People dropped into deep bows as she passed, and stares followed her out of the town.

As soon as the pair crested the hill, Azula and the servant-girl broke into laughter.

"Oh _man_ ," crowed Azula, rolling on the ground. "I wish you could've seen his _face_!"

"I heard his voice!" guffawed the servant girl. "He was gonna pee his pants!"

Azula shimmered with light and shrunk down until she was a much shorter woman with a mane of light purple hair. "I can't _believe_ that worked so well!"

Toph chuckled. "Why _wouldn't_ it work?"

"Toph, I'm _purple."_

 _"_ What?"

"Humans don't come in purple."

" _Oh."_

The two began to laugh again, lying in the dirt on the top of the hill by their cartful of stolen goods.

"Katara's gonna go ballistic," said Toph after they'd both calmed down.

"Yeah, Pearl too," agreed Amethyst. "But come on. That's the best part!"

* * *

In the small Fire Nation village of Koingemu was a message board.

On the message board, amidst the various town announcements and royal decrees, were several wanted posters.

There were the official posters, the ones that were in every township by order of the Fire Lord himself, calling for the capture of such figures as the Blue Spirit and the Avatar himself.

But there were also several posters specific to this town.

"The Blind Bandit," read one. "The Purple Plunderer," read another.

A tall, birdlike woman stood in front of the board, frowning deeply as she tore these posters down.

"I'm going to kill her," she said, and walked away.


	10. Waterbender

"So," said Katara, sidling up to the blue-skinned woman. "You're a waterbender?"

Lapis stared at her. "I'm a what?"

"A—a waterbender. You know. Someone who can bend water."

Steven reached up and pulled Lapis' ear level with his mouth. He whispered something into it and the look of confusion on the woman's face cleared.

"Ah. Yes. I'm a…'waterbender'."

"Would you mind giving a demonstration?"

Lapis shrugged, stretched out her hands, and then _lifted the entire lake into the air._

Katara gaped. "Wha—how did you—what are you—how?"

A small smile crossed Lapis' face and she dropped the lake back down into its bed. Water splashed everywhere, and a moment later all three of them were soaked.

"Like you said," said Lapis dryly. "I'm a waterbender."


	11. Hot-tempered

No one was really sure how it happened.

Moments ago it had been quiet. Then Steven had said something annoying, and then he'd said something _else_ annoying, and then Zuko had snapped at him. Loudly. In front of the entire group. Steven's eyes had grown wide and filled with tears, and Zuko had hastened to apologize, but then—

"How _dare_ he?!" shouted Garnet, uncharacteristically. Everyone turned to stare, Steven and Zuko included.

"I agree, he should not have done that, but we can't be irrational," continued Garnet. No one was really sure who she was talking to.

"But he can't just _yell_ at him like that! Calm down, this is ridiculous. He had _no right!_ Steven didn't do anything wrong! I agree, but you're blowing it out of proportion. No, you're not upset enough! Do you even care? Of course I care! How could you say that?"

Aang looked around at the group to make sure he wasn't the only one who found this strange. He wasn't; his friends' mouths were all agape. The gems, on the other hand, simply looked resigned, and Steven himself was looking rather upset.

But the strange one-person argument was _nothing_ compared to what happened next.

There was a sound like light tearing, and Garnet began to glow. In the next instant, she was gone, and in her place sat two small figures: one was red, and the other was blue. The blue one's eyes were hidden behind overgrown bangs, and the red one's dark red bob was actually smoking.

"Ruby!" said the blue one, a note of distress in her voice.

"Oh, Saph, I'm sorry," said the newly dubbed Ruby, looking guilty. She stood and stretched out a hand to help 'Saph' to her feet. "I didn't mean it."

Saph sighed. "It's alright. Now, let's—" but she trailed off in that moment, because Ruby had already whirled and started storming towards Zuko.

"But I _did_ mean what I said about you!" yelled Ruby. Zuko took a step back, then shook his head and started yelling back.

"Uh…" Aang fidgeted uncomfortably. "Um. Should we…do something?"

Saph sighed again. "No," she said, sounding resigned. "She just gets like this sometimes."

"Um…okay."

"I'm Sapphire, by the way. I'm glad to finally meet you as me, instead of through Garnet's eyes."

"Uh. Yeah, nice to meet you too."

The shouting had increased in volume. Steven sat a few feet away, having crawled out of the way of the arguing pair as soon as fire had started to be involved.

"Are you sure we shouldn't do anything?" asked Aang uncertainly.

"Yes," said Sapphire calmly. "She'll cool down eventually."

"If you say so."


End file.
